Bloch, Donald

Introduction

Donald Bloch was a psychiatrist who influenced the development of the field of family therapy primarily through his influential leadership positions (Doherty 2015). This leadership touched family therapy organizations such as the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) where he served as president, The Ackerman Institute for the Family where he served as Director, and his editorship of family therapy’s flagship journal, Family Process and Family Systems Medicine (Weiner 1996). Always tempered and collaborative, Dr. Bloch is credited with creating a “big tent” under which constructive dialogue took place among the many disparate voices of the pioneers of family therapy. The field of family therapy that ultimately emerged from this dialogue owes him a debt of gratitude. Dr. Bloch was born and raised in New York City in a second-generation Jewish immigrant family. He was described by colleagues as being a very funny, creative, and authentic human being; one of the original...